le ciel bleu
by lokogato-sama
Summary: Draco reflects on his motivations in life, his father, Harry Potter, and wizarding swings. Sort of HD. RR!


Disclaimer: Neither Harry nor Draco nor Lucius belong to me, no matter how much I wish upon the first evening star and stare at the books with happy fangirlish sighs. It is terribly sad, yes, but if they were up for public grabs, they'd be torn to little tiny pieces, so perhaps it is for their own safety ...

le ciel bleu

Once, when he was very young, Draco's father took him to a place where there was a set of wizard swings.

This is how a wizard swing works: you get on the swing, and before you appear a set of marks indicating height off the ground, and you try to swing to the height of your choice. The only catch is, you use not your feet but your will to push you.

Draco's father set him on the swing and started it for him, because Draco was only five and had about as much concentrating ability as a chipmunk, and as Draco was gleefully starting to push the swing on his own, his father asked, "How high do you want to go?"

Draco looked up and saw a speck of a bird amidst the clouds and said with the naïveté of one that does not know how the world works, "I want to go up as high as that bird!"

Lucius Malfoy was much pleased and let Draco alone to attempt his far-fetched goal.

At the 75-meter mark, Draco looked down and realized suddenly that he was very far off the ground and became afraid. He cried out, "Daddy, Daddy, help me!" But he was too far off the ground for anyone to hear him, and as he rushed back towards the ground he screamed again as he passed the group of adults: "Daddy, Daddy! I'm scared, help me!"

His father heard. Draco knew; it was the way his head turned and the silvery blonde hair swirled. His father did nothing.

Draco closed his mouth and mind and let himself fall. It was his mother who noticed and stopped his rapid descent. He heard his father say to a friend as he started walking towards them, "… shameful. Still calls me 'Daddy', lacks the proper respect."

Draco was silent while he waited for his parents, and when his father turned and reached out his hand, saying, "Draco, we're leaving," he nodded, hands behind his back, and said, "Yes, Father."

The sky was very blue.

/

Draco pushed himself on the swing, staring blankly at the meter markings:

_25._

Who knew Diagon Alley had a set of wizard swings? The place would never cease to amaze him with how much it could contain.

_35._

The wind whistled in his ears and made a mess of his hair.

_50._

By the fifty-meter mark, Draco was alone, and it was something very quiet and calm and pure being this alone at this height.

_I want to go up as high as that bird._

_60._

He thought: Life is like this. I always set these goals and then I'm crushed when I can't achieve them. Echoes of his words, his voice: _I'm going to beat Potter in every subject I'm going to be a better Seeker than Potter I'm going to beat Potter in Quidditch I'm going to put Potter in his place I'm going to beat Potter I'm going to_

_70._

Somehow it all came back to Harry Potter. And somehow he had never won. Not once.

_80._

He looked down, he always did, and there it was: the sudden shock of _I can fall and die from here_, a sudden sucking feeling as the ambition left him and he was empty for a moment before the fear poured in, liquid cold, and he left his breath somewhere in the sky.

_90._

His lips formed the words: "Daddy, please help me. I'm scared."

_87._

And then there was this voice behind him, and it was very clear and very strong and he wondered why he knew this voice better his own housemates': "Oi, Malfoy! What the hell are you doing here?"

He felt the grin stretch his face. There was a flash of black hair and slipping glasses and then he pushed forward again.

"What does it look like, Potter? I'm beating you."

The sky was very blue.

_95._

/fin/

[words: 655

paragraphs: 35

sentences: 48]

Aggh. I was trying to write a 500-word thing and I missed by 155 words. Probably all my stupid conjunctions. Die, conjunctions! -stabs conjunctions with a hairbrush and a red colour pencil-

Well, this is my first Harry Potter fanfic … and I suppose it was not entirely Harry/Draco. More general than anything else, I suppose … sigh But then, besides Lucius Malfoy's eighteen words, they're the only people in this thing. I can't believe I just went and counted how many words Lucius says … gah.

Well, what do you think? Did it suck? Could it use tightening? Should I just screw the numbers and throw them overboard to fend for themselves?

REVIEW, pretty pretty please with whipped cream and a naked Draco on top!!!!!!

Draco: -is disturbed-

Harry: I'll review!

Draco: -is more disturbed-

lokogato enterprises ltd.

11 August 5:14 PM


End file.
